Due to low demand, Google has decided to shut down its cloud gaming service, Stadia, early next year. Players have until January 18, 2023, to access and play their games, the tech giant announced last September 29.
Stadia Vice President and General Manager, Phil Harrison, said they have started issuing refunds for hardware, games, and add-on purchases made on Google and Stadia stores.
"We expect to have the majority of refunds completed by mid-January, 2023," Harrison said.
Stadia's impending shutdown also meant many of its team members would transfer to other departments in Google. Stadia's creators cited poor traction as the reason they decided to pull its plug. Despite describing it as an innovation that "transcends gaming."
"While Stadia's approach to streaming games for consumers was built on a strong technology foundation, it hasn't gained the traction with users that we expected," said Harrison. "So, we've made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service," he added.
Stadia may stop its operations, but other Google products, like YouTube and Google Play, stand to benefit from its technology.
"We see clear opportunities to apply this technology across other parts of Google... as well as make it available to our industry partners, which aligns with where we see the future of gaming headed," Harrison said.
Google's decision to shut down Stadia came three years after its launch in 2018. Stadia is an ambitious attempt to cater to the increasing demand for cross-platform gaming. It enables gamers to access titles on any device as long as they have Google Chrome or other Google cloud services.
The Stadia team even introduced a dedicated controller to improve its gameplay experience. But since its launch, Stadia has received wide criticism from professionals and enthusiasts. They pointed out, among other things, poor image quality and low latency.